Good Friends Are Like A Strong, Protective Shield
by GoldGuardian2418
Summary: When Optimus hits a rough patch because things haven't been going so well, his team steps in to help him.
**A kind guest reviewer asked for this one. Here you go, Amigo! Hope I did good with this one! :)**

 **Transformers Prime belongs to Hasbro. I own nothing.**

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 **Good Friends Are Like A Strong, Protective Shield**

Optimus listened to Agent Fowler rant on to him about the almost failed missions the Autobots had been doing lately and he sighed quietly as the man continued to rant. "You need to keep your men in line, Prime!" He said. "If you don't, my superiors are going to breathe down my neck worse than they are now!"

After another few minutes of ear-bashing, the man finally left and Prime sighed as he walked to his office. Jack, Miko, and Raf watched sadly. "Man, Agent Fowler can be a bully!" Miko said in frustration.

"Yeah," said Jack. "I don't think he needs to be so harsh with Optimus."

"Optimus does his best, as do the others," Raf said, typing on his computer to remove some video footage of the Autobots someone had posted and replace it with another video. "The problem is, a lot of the missions don't go exactly as planned."

"That's not the Bots' fault!" Miko said firmly.

"Perhaps not," Soundwave said, startling the three with his sudden appearance. "But Raf is correct. A lot of missions haven't been going right."

"But that hasn't been anyone's fault," said Jack. "When you go against the enemy, it's always hard. You can't exactly be prepared for everything they'll throw at you."

"True," the former silent 'Con said. "But we do need to be a bit more prepared for some missions."

Miko was still fuming. "If Agent Fowler wasn't so important, I'd tell him off for bullying Optimus!" She exclaimed.

"He was bullying Optimus?" Megatron asked, overhearing the girl's ranting.

"More like telling him to get better control of the others on missions," said Raf, looking down. "But, yeah. He was kind of bullying him."

"No wonder Optimus is so stressed out lately," said Ratchet, looking quite upset. "And for once, I agree with Miko."

That was a surprise, because Ratchet never agreed with Miko before, but because she was making a point about standing up for Optimus, he was agreeable to that.

"What can we do?" Jack asked.

Megatron gave the older boy a gentle smile and ruffled his hair gently. "Please keep an eye out for Fowler if he comes back," he said. "Soundwave, Ratchet, and I have something to take care of."

"We do?" Ratchet asked in confusion.

"Yes, good doctor," said Megatron before indicating to down the hall where the quarters were located, along with Prime's office. Catching on, Ratchet nodded as Soundwave led the way.

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Inside his quiet office, Optimus was thinking about what Agent Fowler had said and going over the past few missions in his mind. They had been asked to help with some hostage situations and take out a gun smuggling gang and that had been not only complicated, but had almost gone completely wrong. It was only thanks to quick thinking from the team that the hostages were saved and the gun smuggling gang put in the Federal prison.

Sighing, Optimus began to think that the team should have been more prepared and because they weren't prepared, it was his fault. "Botched missions show bad leadership," he said to himself and sighed again.

The door to his office suddenly flew open and before he could cry out in alarm, Soundwave had him trapped in his tentacles as Megatron and Ratchet came in. Optimus let out a sigh of relief. "Why did you three suddenly burst in here?" He asked them.

"We knocked twice," Ratchet said gently.

"You didn't hear us?" Megatron asked in worry.

Optimus shook his head. "No, I hadn't," he said honestly before letting out another sad sigh.

"Optimus, you're too stressed out," Ratchet said worriedly.

Megatron placed a hand on Ratchet's shoulder. "Doctor, I believe some 'medicine' would be advisable right now," he said.

"You're absolutely right," the medic said in agreement. "But Optimus squirms quite a bit."

"Leave that to me," said Soundwave as he pinned Optimus to the floor with most of his tentacles while leaving a few free.

"Thank you, Soundwave," Megatron said, smirking evilly. "Ratchet, where is Optimus most ticklish?"

Optimus had been squirming when he heard that and he now looked at them in shock and felt nervous as the three smirked at him. "He's supremely ticklish," Ratchet answered.

Hearing that, Soundwave used his free tentacles to tickle Optimus' feet and Megatron got to work tickling Optimus' stomach while Ratchet slipped his hands under Optimus' upper back and tickled right where his shoulder blades would be if he was human.

Optimus couldn't hold in his laughter and laughed his hardest, trying to move away from them, but the three didn't stop tickling him. "Sorry, Optimus, but you need this 'medicine'," Ratchet said with a teasing smirk.

"After all, humans do say laughter is the best medicine," said Megatron.

"And we're not going to leave you stressed out like Fowler did," said Soundwave as he made sure his tentacles were holding Optimus down as the larger bot kept trying to squirm free.

"HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! STOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOP!" Optimus pleaded with them.

"Was that supposed to be an order?" Ratchet asked cheekily with a smirk.

"I didn't hear anything but laughter," Megatron said with a chuckle. "Did you hear anything besides laughter, Soundwave?"

"No, Megatron," Soundwave answered, a grin in his voice. "Perhaps Optimus wishes us to continue?"

Optimus kept laughing as the three continued tickling him, drawing the attention of the others, who came into their leader's office and were shocked to see Ratchet, Megatron, and Soundwave tickling Optimus. Soundwave turned to them. "Ah, good. You've arrived," he said. "The three of us need a little bit of help."

Arcee was the first one to react. "Why are you all tickling Optimus?" She asked, unsure of whether to draw out her gun or start laughing.

"Fowler came by and stressed Optimus out, to the point that he not only feels down, but blames himself for the past few missions almost failing," said Ratchet. "Therefore, he needs some 'medicine'."

Bumblebee smirked. "I've heard Raf's mom say that to him before she would tickle him," he said.

"I've heard Jack tell Miko that too," Bulkhead admitted.

Smokescreen smirked. "Well, can we help you three?" He asked eagerly.

Megatron turned to them all with a smile. "An opportunity like this doesn't happen often," he said with a wink.

Bumblebee, Smokescreen, and Bulkhead needed no more convincing and quickly joined in to tickle their leader while Arcee was still debating whether this was proper, but then, the combined laughter of her teammates and leader was making her smile and she decided to join in, because as Megatron said, an opportunity like this didn't happen often.

When they all finally let their leader up, Optimus weakly sat down in his chair and looked at them all. "A bit uncalled for," he said. "But…quite effective."

"That was the idea, Optimus," said Ratchet. "We didn't want you to blame yourself and feel down about what happened."

"We've also been watching some videos and reading up on hostage situations and gangs to be better prepared when we're called to deal with situations like that again," said Arcee.

That made Optimus smile. "Good," he said. "And…thank you."

"That's what friends are for, Optimus," said Bumblebee respectfully. "Jack and Miko once told Raf that good friends are like a strong, protective shield and, while you're our leader, you're also a friend to us."

The others nodded in agreement to what Bumblebee said and Optimus chuckled. "I have to agree with them and all of you," he said. "Thank you, my friends."

Optimus felt less stressed out now and knew it was because of his team, and he was proud to be their leader and friend.

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 **GoldGuardian2418**


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